Thursday, December 20, 2012

The Wikipedia articles relevant to Jehovah’s Witnesses and
related groups and personalities are incredibly inaccurate. We do not support
their conclusions or the research behind them. While some sections contain no
or few faults, Wikipedia cannot be relied on for consistently accuracy.

This problem is endemic on Wikipedia. Neither Mr. Schulz nor
myself allow our students to use it as a reference in any paper or assignment.
Wikipedia is the habitation of religious trolls and abusive personalities who
consider themselves “expert” but who are neither expert nor particularly
talented.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Today someone commented on a post from 2009. They claimed that Storrs baptized the Russells in 1874. Because the comment is now burried in the archives, I'm posting my relpy here too:

There is no evidence that Storrs baptized the Russells. That is mere
speculation. It's also wrong.

Storrs did not see water baptism as
important. He wrote against it. Stetson, on the other hand, saw water baptism as
vitally important.

There are three good candidates for personage who
baptized the Russells. Storrs is not one of them.

While we're glad you
read our blog, posting unfounded speculation as fact detracts from our efforts
to document the real history. This claim is an example of many speculations given out as fact that find there place on Watch Tower history sites. It is without documentation. You swallowed it whole simply because you read it somewhere.

We are very skeptical historians. If we cannot document something, even if we belive it, we won't include it. This, Russell's "gold mine," claims about his fortune and business, and similar things are usually presented as fact but are at best speculation. Some of the claims made are lies.

Good history is a well documented, connected story. Your claim is fantasy fiction.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

I have the date 1895 in my files for this, but without consulting
the Boonville Advertiser cannot verify that.

This is J F Rutherford’s first book. The forward reads (in
part)

“It has been the aim and intention in the preparation of
this book to give a brief analysis of the Laws of Missouri in a form easy to be
comprehended by every one. THE ADVERTISER has had Mr. J.F. Rutherford, one of
the leading members of the Boonville bar, to compile and arrange the laws
herein. His fitness for such work is a guarantee of its usefulness to the
farmers and business men.”

About a dozen different firms of lawyers are listed in the
directory. JFR was part of WRIGHT AND RUTHERFORD, lawyers, Office in the
Windsor Block.

The small book of about 128 pages was given away free with
the Boonville Advertiser. It may have curiosity value, but has nothing to do
with JFR’s later writings for the Watch Tower Society.